The Battle of Aspen
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"The Battle of Aspen" is an article published in ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' , dated October 1, 1970, and written by Hunter S. Thompson. The cover of the magazine ran the teaser "Freak Power in the Rockies," and the article was later reprinted with that title in ''
The Great Shark Hunt ''The Great Shark Hunt'' is a book by Hunter S. Thompson. Originally published in 1979 as ''Gonzo Papers, Vol. 1: The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time'', the book is a roughly 600-page collection of Thompson's essays from 1956 t ...
.'' The article's subject is the 1969 mayoral election in
Aspen, Colorado Aspen is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,004 at the 2020 United States Census. Aspen is in a remote area of the Rocky Moun ...
, in particular the candidacy of Joe Edwards, a lawyer, "biker" and non-conformist resident of Aspen. It also details the Freak Power platform Thompson himself was to adopt while running for Sheriff of
Pitkin County, Colorado Pitkin County is a county in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,358. The county seat and largest city is Aspen. The county is named for Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin. Pitkin County has the sev ...
, the subsequent year.


Background

Though unsuccessful, the Edwards campaign was notable for its attempt to garner nearly all of its support from "
freak A freak is a person who is physically deformed or transformed due to an extraordinary medical condition or body modification. This definition was first attested with this meaning in the 1880s as a shorter form of the phrase " freak of nature ...
s," "heads," and " dropouts" from the surrounding areas—Freak Power, as it was dubbed. Thompson, who became de facto campaign manager for Edwards during the race, devotes much of the article to the local politics of Aspen and the entrenched politicians it supports. Simultaneously a creed against politicians who sacrifice the
quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
of their constituents for short term gain or notoriety, and an outline of optimism regarding the possibility of the marginalized to take power, the article details the campaign from its inception through the run-up to election and ends with a consideration of the results and the impact they may have had.


Results of the mayoral campaign

In both the 1969 Mayor's election and the 1970 Sheriff election, Edwards and Thompson narrowly lost to more
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
candidates. A coalition of the Democratic and Republican candidates during the Mayor's election (along with mail votes and alleged vote-fixing) managed to defeat Edwards by 6 votes (although there were 5 absentee ballots for Edwards, but they did not arrive in time to count), which Thompson said had confirmed his suspicion that both Aspen and America at large could be more radical than he had imagined, and thus that a "Freak Power" campaign on a local or national scale could work.


Thompson's campaign for sheriff

The next year, therefore, Thompson put together a campaign to elect himself as Sheriff. It combined aggressive radicalism, a higher level of organization than the previous Freak Power campaign, more controversy and danger as well as some frivolous moments. His tentative platform set forth six points, including: *"Rip up all city streets with jackhammers" and "sod the streets at once ... All public movement would be by foot and a fleet of bicycles, maintained by the city police force." *"Change the name 'Aspen,' by public referendum, to 'Fat City.' This would prevent greedheads, land-rapers and other human jackals from capitalizing on the name 'Aspen' ... These swine should be fucked, broken, and driven across the land." *"Drug Sales must be controlled. My first act as Sheriff will be to install, on the courthouse lawn, a
bastinado Foot whipping, falanga/falaka or bastinado is a method of inflicting pain and humiliation by administering a beating on the soles of a person's bare feet. Unlike most types of flogging, it is meant more to be painful than to cause actual injury ...
platform and a set of stocks in order to punish dishonest dope dealers in a proper public fashion. Each year these dealers cheat millions of people out of millions of dollars ... it will be the general philosophy of the Sheriff’s office that no drug worth taking should be sold for money." *"Hunting and fishing should be forbidden to all non-residents, with the exception of those who can obtain the signed endorsement of a resident- who will then be legally responsible for any violation or abuse committed by the non-resident he has 'signed for' ... By this approach-making hundreds or even thousands of individuals personally responsible for protecting the animals, fish and birds who live here-we would create a sort of de facto game preserve, without the harsh restrictions that will necessarily be forced on us if these blood-thirsty geeks keep swarming in here each autumn to shoot everything they see." *"The Sheriff and his Deputies should never be armed in public. Every urban riot, shoot-out and blood-bath (involving guns) in recent memory has been set off by some trigger-happy cop in a fear frenzy." *"It will be the policy of the Sheriff's office savagely to harass all those engaged in any form of land-rape." Thompson promised to fire the majority of the conservative county officials and bureaucrats, and shaved his head bald, thereby referring to the crew-cut, ex-army, Republican
incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...
as "My long-haired opponent." Threats received by Thompson during the campaign included one sent to City Hall following a dynamite theft in the County, insisting that the explosives would only be used if Thompson was elected. This led to Thompson's house and campaign HQ at
Woody Creek, Colorado Woody Creek is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The Woody Creek post office has the ZIP Code 81656 ( post office boxes). At the United S ...
, taking on the aspect of an armed camp on election night, with guards patrolling the grounds with guns and flashlights. Ultimately, the "Thompson for Sheriff" campaign was also unsuccessful, partly due to a Republican–Democratic agreement not to stand against each other in certain key elections in order to allow all 'Non-Thompson' votes to count towards one candidate and partly due to an article Thompson wrote for ''Rolling Stone'' shortly before the election, revealing his strategy. Thompson lost the election with 173 votes to his opponent's 204. In a November 1970 letter to the editor of ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...
'', which had run an editorial supporting Aspen's Freak Power Uprising, Thompson stated: "What neither ''The Times'' nor ''The National Observer'' said, incidentally, is that we ran straight at the bastards with an out-front Mescaline platform." Thompson ultimately took a resigned view of his defeat, telling ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', "If we can't win in Aspen, we can't win anywhere."


Related media

* A documentary film about Hunter S. Thompson's campaign for sheriff called ' Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb' was released December 25, 2020. * In July 2021 a film called 'Freak Power: The Battle of Aspen' was released. It was directed by Bobby Kennedy III. * In 1970, 'This Week', a British weekly current affairs television programme aired a documentary titled: "Show Down at Aspen"


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Aspen, The Magazine articles by Hunter S. Thompson Colorado elections 1969 elections in the United States 1970 elections in the United States 1970 documents 1969 United States mayoral elections 1969 Colorado elections Rolling Stone articles Aspen, Colorado Local elections in Colorado